Soviet Union Quotes

• General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

  Ronald Reagan

  Wall, Patriotic, Europe

  Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate, delivered 12 June 1987, West Berlin

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• After the demise of the Soviet Union, we had many problems of our own for which no one was responsible but ourselves: the economic downfall, the collapse of the welfare system, the separatism, and of course the terror attacks that shook our country. In this respect, we do not have to look for guilty parties abroad.

  Vladimir Putin

  Country, Party, Terror Attacks

  Source: www.businessinsider.com

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• Whether they are defending the Soviet Union or bleating for Saddam Hussein, liberals are always against America. They are either traitors or idiots, and on the matter of America's self-preservation, the difference is irrelevant.

  Ann Coulter

  Differences, America, Self

  Ann Coulter (2003). “Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism”, p.28, Crown Forum

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• If you are in Brazil and you grew up in a right-wing dictatorship, you think Marxism is liberating. But if you grew up in Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union is controlling everything and killing people, then you think capitalism is liberating. Neither of those two things are true and it doesn't take a lot brains to understand this.

  Jose Padilha

  Thinking, Wings, Two

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• I don't worry about superpower confrontation. You know, I lived through the Cold War days, and where everybody was worried about a Soviet Union armed to the teeth. I think we're going to get along fine with Russia, and I don't see them as internationally ambitious.

  George H. W. Bush

  War, Thinking, Russia

  "Transcript: George H.W. Bush on "FOX News Sunday". "FOX News Sunday" with Chris Wallace, www.foxnews.com. November 4, 2007.

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• Anyone who doesn't regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored has no brains.

  Vladimir Putin

  Regret, Heart, Brain

  "Spy who came in from the cold" by Tom Parfitt, www.theguardian.com. December 23, 2007.

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• The demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.

  Vladimir Putin

  Demise, Unions, Provocative

  Speech on national TV, April 25, 2005.

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• Gaiety is the most outstanding feature of the Soviet Union.

  Joseph Stalin

  Unions, Outstanding, Ussr

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• Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

  Ronald Reagan

  Wall, Memorable, Europe

  Remarks at Brandenburg Gate, West Berlin, Germany, 12 June 1987

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• If the Soviet Union let another political party come into existence, they would still be a one-party state, because everybody would join the other party.

  Ronald Reagan

  Party, Political, Unions

  Ronald Reagan (2004). “Speaking My Mind: Selected Speeches”, p.424, Simon and Schuster

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• In the Soviet Union, capitalism triumphed over communism. In this country, capitalism triumphed over democracy.

  Fran Lebowitz

  Country, Democracy, Literature

  FaceBook post by Fran Lebowitz from Jul 27, 2012

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• After every major conflict - World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the fall of the Soviet Union - what happened was that we ultimately hollowed out the force, largely by doing deep across-the-board cuts.

  Leon Panetta

  War, Fall, Cutting

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• Even during the years of the Cold War, the intense confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States, we always avoided any direct clash between our civilians and, most certainly, between our military.

  Vladimir Putin

  Military, War, Years

  Interview with Matthew Chance, edition.cnn.com. August 29, 2008.

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• It is the Soviet Union that runs against the tide of human history by denying human freedom and human dignity to its citizens.

  Ronald Reagan

  Running, Presidential, Tides

  Ronald Reagan, Michael Reagan (2016). “The Last Best Hope: The Greatest Speeches of Ronald Reagan”, p.100, Humanix Books

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• They [The Soviet Union] are the focus of evil in the modern world.

  Ronald Reagan

  Evil, Presidential, Focus

  Ronald Reagan's Remarks at the Annual Convention of the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida, www.reaganlibrary.gov. March 8, 1983.

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• It is difficult to violently suppress people in the long run, as the example of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries has shown.

  Dalai Lama

  Running, Country, Long

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• When I was in the White House, I was confronted with the challenge of the Cold War. Both the Soviet Union and I had 30,000 nuclear weapons that could destroy the entire earth and I had to maintain the peace.

  Jimmy Carter

  War, White, House

  "Interview: President Jimmy Carter Talks About His New Bible and Christian Beliefs". Interview with Katherine T. Phan, www.christianpost.com. March 30, 2012.

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• Why did the Soviet Union disintegrate? Why did the Soviet Communist Party collapse? An important reason was that their ideals and beliefs had been shaken.

  Xi Jinping

  Party, Important, Unions

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• When we hear (as we sometimes do) that (Russia's) economic output is about half the level of a decade ago or that real incomes have fallen sharply, it is worth recalling that economic statistics under the Soviet Union were hardly more reliable than any other official statements. Moreover, a country that produces what no one wants to buy, and whose workers receive wages that they cannot use to buy goods they want, is hardly in the best of economic health.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Country, Real, Russia

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• The Berlin Wall wasn't the only barrier to fall after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Traditional barriers to the flow of money, trade, people and ideas also fell.

  Fareed Zakaria

  Money, Wall, War

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• The role of Ronald Reagan had been deliberately diminished; the role of the Europeans, who, with the exception of Helmet Kohl, were often keen to undermine America when it mattered, had been sanitized; and the role of Mr. Gorbachev, who had failed spectacularly in his declared objective of saving communism and the Soviet Union, had been absurdly misunderstood.

  Margaret Thatcher

  America, Misunderstood, Unions

  "Rupert Murdoch's inaugural Margaret Thatcher lecture" by Rupert Murdoch, www.theguardian.com. October 21, 2010.

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• Castro couldn't even go to the bathroom unless the Soviet Union put the nickel in the toilet.

  Richard M. Nixon

  Toilets, Unions, Bathroom

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• It would be enough for me to have the system of a jury of twelve versus the system of one judge as a basis for preferring the U.S. to the Soviet Union. I would prefer the country you can leave to the country you cannot.

  Joseph Brodsky

  Country, Judging, Twelve

  Joseph Brodsky, Cynthia L. Haven (2002). “Joseph Brodsky: Conversations”, p.98, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• Ronald Reagan will be remembered for leading the United States during a time of tremendous international transition - the demise of the Soviet Union, the Berlin Wall coming down, and the end of the Cold War

  Mary Landrieu

  Wall, War, United States

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• I wonder if those people shown protesting the deployment of nuclear weapons to western Europe during the Reagan era are feeling appropriately stupid today. 'Please don't take away our precious Soviet Union! - We demand the annihilation of all life on Earth!'

  Craig Reucassel

  Stupid, Europe, People

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